Products cannot opt out once submitted. By submitting your product, you are providing full commitment to the program and any fees that may apply if your product is voted a finalist or winner of Product of the Year.

All entered product that have been selected to move into research are considered “finalists”. The finalist fee is $7,000 and helps offset the cost for the comprehensive research conducted by Kantar TNS and the survey of 40,000 consumers. Win or lose, all Finalists receive the full research analysis which has a value of $28,000.

Products that have been voted “Product of the Year” in the survey of 40,000 consumers are deemed “winners”. This carries a fee of $63,000 and permits winners to a two year licensing term of the Product of the Year logo. The logo can be featured across all marketing materials including packaging, in-store, advertising, promotions, digital, etc … Winners are also features in a national PR campaign which generates an average of 350 million media impressions.

Finalists will be notified after their products have been put through to the consumer research stage of the competition. Winners will be confidentially notified at the end of November and can prepare marketing efforts to start at midnight of the Awards Night in February.

Winners will be invited to the Awards Night to find out the winners and celebrate innovation. The 2019 Awards Night will take place in February 2019 in New York City.

HOW IT WORKS

Step 1: Enter Your Product

Entries for the 2019 Awards are now open. Eligible products must be launched since January of 2017, have national distribution, and demonstrate a meaningful level of product and / or packaging innovation.

Step 2: Press Preview

Once all products have been submitted, a panel of press and industry professionals are invited to review the submitted products to ensure that the innovation criteria are met before they go on to the consumer research.

Step 3: Consumers Vote

Kantar TNS conducts a quantitative study using a nationally representative survey of 40,000 consumers to vote products “Product of the Year” in defined categories. Consumers evaluate each product on several criteria including product appeal, satisfaction, advocacy, purchase interest, uniqueness, relevance and excitement.

Step 4: Award Show

All winners are invited to attend the 2019 Product of the Year awards gala which takes place in February in New York City. The Awards Show marks the public announcement of the winners and the start of all winner activation.